Aesthete Runner

It is hard to believe it has been 4 weeks since the Chicago marathon, and just this morning I was watching the NYC marathon. What an inspiring day, and it's been a good 4 weeks of recovery and easy runs for me to appreciate and reflect back on my own marathon experience.

I am back from my Vegas vacation and completed another 10 mile race yesterday at the Waterfall Glen Xtreme 10 event. The "official" training for this week was mixed, as I enjoyed some fantastic hiking in Vegas, while also trying to keep my legs fresh for the race yesterday. I loved that I was able to still stick with the training plan, while choosing to keep my mileage lower.

It is now officially April and that means my race is in 20 days!!!! The nerves and excitement are starting to set in. Yesterday I had my second 20 mile run and it is definitely sinking in that this is going to be happening...soon.

The balancing act continued this past week as I somehow managed to adjust to a new job, morning running, and a 20 mile long run. I might be crazy, but I am actually happy that the clocks jumped ahead last night as now I can get in some runs after work.

As 2016 is coming to an end, I am participating in a linkup with Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC to look back on some of my running highlights for the year. Click on the button to read her blog and join the linkup!

It is week 3 of Hansons Base Building plan and I think I am finally getting the hang of this. With more familiarity of the various runs, I really enjoyed this week and could tell a difference in my overall speed. Here was my plan for the week:

Oh week 9 was brutal! Not so much the training itself, but training in the heat. Chicago is no stranger to hot temps but this week brought sequential days with the heat index over 100. I have heard that running in the heat is similar to altitude training, and I can fully appreciate this after my attempts this week. These are the times when I do wish for a treadmill or access to a gym, but I also know that I would never enjoy the runs as much as if I was doing them outdoors. As much as I had planned to stick to my training schedule, I simply had to make adjustments for the heat. Here was my training plan for the week: Monday: 5 miles easy Tuesday: Speedwork -  5 X 1k, 400m recovery Wednesday: Rest Thursday: 8 miles tempo  Strength training Friday: 6 miles easy Saturday: 5 miles easy Sunday: 15 miles long  5 miles long (on the trail) Clearly the two most important runs of the week were major fails. On Thursday the heat advisory had started and the tempos were ov...